Shaquille O’Neal returns to LA in colors of enemy

Credit: AP File

TWO FOR THE AGES: Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal celebrate a Lakers victory during the 2001 season.

LOS ANGELES — Since the day he left and burned most of the remaining goodwill on his old Lakers team, Shaquille O’Neal has returned to the site of his greatest triumphs in an ever-changing look.

He’s been a member of the Heat, Suns and Cavaliers. Today, he changes for the fourth time in his post-Lakers career, now as a Celtic. That image has to vex any Lakers fan who grew up like Paul Pierce, living from one playoff series to the next between these two teams.

But Kobe Bryant, probably targeted by more of Shaq’s parting verbal Scud attacks than any other former teammate or team, isn’t willing to attach much significance to the sight of Shaq, of all things, in that infamous green uniform.

“I don’t put much into it that he’s playing for the Celtics,” Kobe Bryant said in a very slow, measured cadence after yesterday’s practice. “I don’t think Laker fans do, either.”

Phil Jackson, who may have earned his pay more than at any other point in his career as a mediator when Bryant and O’Neal were winning three NBA titles together, also downplayed the novelty of Shaq as a Celtic.

Indeed, the Lakers coach sounds as if he has been desensitized by all of these Shaq reincarnations. Jackson also couldn’t resist taking one of his trademark shots — albeit with his trademark sublime sense of humor.

“No,” he said of whether he considers the sight unique. “He’s been in so many different uniforms that I don’t think it’s very different now.

“I think the fans will treat him normally. It’s not that he’s a comic figure, but he’s familiar. He’s America’s figure of salesmanship. You look up and he’s selling everything.

“But I’m not surprised he’s still going. I told him he could play until he’s 40. He’s a good enough athlete.”

Not everyone is so immune to the weirdness of the moment.

Brian Shaw, the former Celtic who played with O’Neal on those championship teams, and is now a Lakers assistant coach, admits there is something wrong about what will be unveiled in front of the Staples Center crowd today.

“Even looking at games now, it doesn’t seem right,” Shaw said. “It doesn’t look right and it doesn’t seem right. You’re not accustomed to seeing that.”

Derek Fisher initially had the same reaction upon hearing that Shaq had signed with the Celtics. But the Lakers point guard changed his mind after thinking back to those championship Lakers teams.

At the time, Fisher pointed out, the Celtics were a weak sister — not exactly the team that has rekindled this rivalry.

“At first it was a little strange,” he said. “But when I think back to when we were here together, the Celtics mystique wasn’t what it is now. Not to the extent now where you think badly of that team.

“Back then, they were a team we played once every nine months. That was the extent of the rivalry back then.”

Shaw, however, does feel something of an ache for the way things were, when everyone still got along.

“Regardless of what anybody says, that duo of Kobe and (O’Neal) in LA was one of the best tandems of all time,” Shaw said. “Just looking back in retrospect myself, it’s a shame that they didn’t get along, because that team that was in place, instead of winning three championships should have won six or seven championships.

“Kobe has matured, and Shaq has matured, and Phil has gotten better with it, because his relationship with both of them was tumultuous at times. Looking back, if they could have it all back, I’m sure they’d all say they would have done it a little differently.”

Or perhaps all parties are still too bruised by those old battles.

And now Shaq — America’s pitchman — is changing teams in his chase for a fifth NBA ring. Should he succeed this season with the Celtics, he would become only the third player in NBA history, along with former teammate Robert Horry and John Salley, to win a title with three different teams.

“I’m not surprised that he’s in Boston now because of free agency and the way things go with shorter contracts,” Shaw said. “You’re at the end of your career and you’re trying to maximize your chances of winning another championship. I’m not totally surprised by it, especially since when he left here, it wasn’t on the best of terms.”